2017 Spanish Grand Prix

The 2017 Spanish Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017) was a Formula One motor race held on 14 May 2017 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. The race was the fifth round of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the forty-seventh running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a World Championship event since the inaugural season in 1950, and the twenty-seventh time that a World Championship round had been held at Catalunya.

2017 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 5 of 20 in the 2017 Formula One World Championship
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Layout of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Layout of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Race details[1]
Date 14 May 2017 (2017-05-14)
Official name Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017[2][3]
Location Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Montmeló, Spain
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.655 km (2.892 miles)
Distance 66 laps, 307.104 km (190.825 miles)
Weather Sunny
Attendance 177,984[4]
Pole position
Driver Mercedes
Time 1:19.149
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:23.593 on lap 64
Podium
First Mercedes
Second Ferrari
Third Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Lap leaders

Report

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Free practice

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Both of Friday's practice sessions finished with an identical top six on the timesheet, with Lewis Hamilton heading the list, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas second and the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel third and fourth respectively. Next came the Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen fifth in both sessions and Daniel Ricciardo sixth.[5][6] McLaren Honda's run of poor reliability continued, with home favourite Fernando Alonso sitting out most of the first session after his car suffered a major engine failure during his first lap.[7] Alonso was able to take part in the second session, but had to wait until almost half an hour into it while his team was completing an engine change.[8]

The third practice session, on Saturday morning, finished with Räikkönen quickest, Vettel second, and Hamilton third.[9] Bottas was fourth after his engine suffered a water leak and he was only able to run towards the end of the session, once Mercedes had changed the engine.[10] The Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Ricciardo were again fifth and sixth.

Qualifying

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Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position from Sebastian Vettel by 0.051 seconds. Vettel was initially ordered to stop the car on track for an engine problem in Q1 but he questioned the decision and the problem was resolved and allowed him to continue. Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen filled up the second row followed by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Fernando Alonso delivered a shocking result to get his underpowered McLaren into Q3 and then qualifying as the best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. The top ten was filled out by Sergio Pérez, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon.

Race

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Vettel had a better start than Hamilton and led into the first corner. An incident with Bottas, Räikkönen and Verstappen meant that both Räikkönen and Verstappen retired with suspension damage and Bottas was left slightly handicapped. The incident also caused Felipe Massa to obtain a puncture, while also forcing Alonso off the track, leading them to eventually finish the race outside of the points. This left the top ten as Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Pérez, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Magnussen, Sainz and Grosjean. Hamilton stuck with Vettel for fourteen laps, when Ferrari decided to cover off the undercut by pitting for softs. Hamilton meanwhile stayed out on track for seven extra laps and rejoined around seven seconds behind Vettel on the medium tyres. Vettel lost around four seconds to Hamilton trying to get past Bottas, who hadn't pitted yet, before completing a spectacular overtake on Bottas.

With just over thirty laps remaining, the McLaren of Vandoorne drove into Massa and retired with suspension damage, earning him a grid penalty at the next race. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was brought out so his car could be removed and this allowed Hamilton to pit for the faster soft tyres, while not losing much time to Vettel due to the limited speed. Vettel then pitted for the slower medium tyres as was required, just when the VSC had finished, resulting in Vettel coming out of the pitlane alongside Hamilton. They touched wheels and Hamilton was forced off the track and had to fall behind Vettel. Then on lap 38, the Mercedes of Bottas suffered an engine failure (from the engine he had used for all previous races) and this promoted Ricciardo into a podium place. Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein who was doing a one-stop, used the VSC to his advantage and came out of the pits in eighth; he then got promoted to seventh following Bottas's retirement. However, he received a five-second penalty for an error in entering the pit lane.

Hamilton, with faster tyres, then managed to overtake Vettel for the lead on the pit straight on lap 44 and held on to the lead to win the race, reducing Vettel's lead in the championship to 6 points and increasing Mercedes's lead in the Constructors' Championship to eight points over Ferrari. Ricciardo finished third for his first podium of the season and took the fifth place in the Championship from Verstappen. Despite new upgrades, his Red Bull was 75 seconds behind Hamilton, the furthest back they had been all season, and Ricciardo was the only other car apart from the two leaders to finish on the lead lap. The next to cross the line were the Force Indias of Pérez and Ocon. Then Nico Hülkenberg finished in sixth place for Renault, their highest finish since returning to the sport in 2016. Wehrlein crossed the line in seventh but was demoted to eighth with his penalty, still picking up four valuable points for the struggling Sauber team, with the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz being promoted to the seventh in his stead. Kvyat and Grosjean finished ninth and tenth respectively after Kevin Magnussen, who was running in ninth, suffered a late puncture due to contact with Kvyat and fell to fourteenth. Fernando Alonso finished in twelfth, the first time he had finished a race in the season, but he admitted he was lacking the race pace to go with his superb qualifying.[11]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos. Car
no.
Driver Constructor Qualifying times Final
grid
Q1 Q2 Q3
1 44   Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.511 1:20.210 1:19.149 1
2 5   Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:20.939 1:20.295 1:19.200 2
3 77   Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.991 1:20.300 1:19.373 3
4 7   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.742 1:20.621 1:19.439 4
5 33   Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:21.430 1:20.722 1:19.706 5
6 3   Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:21.704 1:20.855 1:20.175 6
7 14   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:22.015 1:21.251 1:21.048 7
8 11   Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:21.998 1:21.239 1:21.070 8
9 19   Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:22.138 1:21.222 1:21.232 9
10 31   Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1:21.901 1:21.148 1:21.272 10
11 20   Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1:21.945 1:21.329 11
12 55   Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 1:21.941 1:21.371 12
13 27   Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:22.091 1:21.397 13
14 8   Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1:21.822 1:21.517 14
15 94   Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.327 1:21.803 15
16 9   Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.332 16
17 30   Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:22.401 17
18 18   Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1:22.411 18
19 2   Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 1:22.532 201
20 26   Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:22.746 19
107% time: 1:26.147
Source:[12]
  • ^1Stoffel Vandoorne received a ten-place grid penalty for use of additional power unit elements.

Race

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Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 44   Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 66 1:35:56.497 1 25
2 5   Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 66 +3.490 2 18
3 3   Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 66 +1:15.820 6 15
4 11   Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 8 12
5 31   Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 10 10
6 27   Nico Hülkenberg Renault 65 +1 Lap 13 8
7 55   Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 65 +1 Lap 12 6
8 94   Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap1 15 4
9 26   Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 65 +1 Lap 19 2
10 8   Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 14 1
11 9   Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 64 +2 Laps 16
12 14   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 64 +2 Laps 7
13 19   Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 64 +2 Laps 9
14 20   Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 64 +2 Laps 11
15 30   Jolyon Palmer Renault 64 +2 Laps 17
16 18   Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 64 +2 Laps 18
Ret 77   Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 38 Engine 3
Ret 2   Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 32 Accident 20
Ret 33   Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1 Collision damage 5
Ret 7   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 0 Collision 4
Source:[13]
Notes
  • ^1Pascal Wehrlein received a 5-second penalty for failing to keep to the right of the pit-entry bollard, this demoted him from 7th to 8th position.[13]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  2. ^ Mitchell, Malcolm. "2017 Formula 1 World Championship Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  3. ^ Mitchell, Malcolm. "Catalunya - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  4. ^ "F1 reveals overall rise in 2017 attendance". Gpupdate.net. 8 December 2017. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017.
  5. ^ "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 1". Formula1.com. 12 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 2". Formula1.com. 12 May 2017.
  7. ^ "Lewis Hamilton fastest in Spain as Fernando Alonso breaks down". BBC Sport. 12 May 2017.
  8. ^ "Lewis Hamilton top in Spanish Grand Prix practice with upgraded Mercedes". BBC Sport. 12 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 3". Formula1.com. 13 May 2017.
  10. ^ "Kimi Raikkonen heads final Spanish Grand Prix practice". BBC Sport. 13 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Race – Hamilton beats Vettel in Spain to close title race". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Ltd. 14 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Ltd. 13 May 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  13. ^ a b "Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Race Result". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Ltd. 14 May 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  14. ^ a b "Spain 2017 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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